


Sticks and String

by SoYoureClairevoyant



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Anxiety, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Happy, Hobbies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26017003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoYoureClairevoyant/pseuds/SoYoureClairevoyant
Summary: Yuuri has felt anxious since his move to St. Petersburg, but Victor walks in on him one day to find Yuuri has a new hobby that might help him.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 2
Kudos: 88





	Sticks and String

**Author's Note:**

> I have been thinking about how everyone needs a hobby outside of their job, and I finally turned this idea it into something. The dialogue came first, then the actual story.
> 
> I love writing domestic Victuuri.
> 
> Not beta'd so if you see any errors let me know!

“What are you doing?”

Victor had come from the bedroom where he had been working to stand behind Yuuri, who was sitting on the sofa mumbling over something in his lap. Evenings were getting colder in St. Petersburg, and Yuuri and Victor sometimes separated for a few hours to relax before coming back together at night to eat dinner and then cuddle or go over their schedules for the next day. Yuuri startled and dropped what he was holding. Looking up and over his shoulder, he responded.

“Vitya! You scared me!”

Victor smiled impishly and came around the sofa to put a small kiss on Yuuri’s head before sitting down next to him. The younger skater once again took up the items in his lap. It looked like a lump on a couple of sticks connected to a tangled ball of string, but what was Yuuri doing with it?

“It’s one of my life’s pleasures being able to surprise you, love. But it seems the surprise is mine tonight? What are you doing with all this?”

Yuuri put down the sticks, his face scrunched up in thought and his legs criss-crossed underneath him. His glasses were on the coffee table in front of him, next to a fresh cup of tea. “Oh, well, I was taking a walk this afternoon, you know, learning the area, trying to practice reading the Cyrillic, and I got cold so I walked into what I thought was a cafe. Turns out it was also a craft shop. I felt bad stopping in just for coffee so I started walking around and this woman asked what I was working on.”

Victor was confused. Since when did Yuuri leave the apartment alone to practice his Russian? He must be getting comfortable in the city, Victor mused silently. He urged Yuuri on. “A craft shop? Like the paper crafts kids do in school with the glue and the sparkles?”

“Well, yeah. So I panicked and told her I was looking for a new hobby, you know, since you mentioned the late-night gaming was getting out of hand.” Victor had to roll his eyes at that one. Since the move, Yuuri was having trouble getting to sleep, and he spent his sleepless nights gaming or chatting with his friends overseas in different time zones. It made him a monster during early morning workouts and practices.

“We agreed that staying up until four in the morning when you have to be up at five-thirty would qualify as “out-of-hand.” I don’t mind the gaming, love. Only you said your beautiful eyes were always red and itchy, and neither one of us wants to deal with a dragon during practice.”

Yuuri smiled to himself, reliving the morning when he earned the nickname. “Right. So we talked and I mentioned being a little anxious lately, and she said she gets anxious, too! Can you believe that? Anyway, she told me that paper crafts might not be the way to go because the measurements and angles usually have to be perfect to get the shape you want and that kind of pressure could trigger something. So she led me to the string and yarn.”

“The string and yarn? Whatever for?” Victor was truly interested in what his fiance was saying, so he pulled his feet under him and pulled a blanket into his lap to get comfortable. His arm was already resting on the back of the sofa, so he leaned into his hand while he looked at Yuuri.

“Well, you can make things with string and yarn that will still function even if you make a mistake.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s like a superstition, apparently. You have to make a mistake when you work with yarn to make sure whatever bad energy you put into it can leave whatever you make.” 

This had been a surprise to Yuuri. As a person with an appreciation for both hard work and fate, he was drawn to the concept of combining the two to make something he could hold onto. He could put his whole heart and soul into a dance or a skating routine, but once the season was over or the music stopped, the routine ceased to exist. Recordings and videos aside, he wanted something concrete.

“So this kind of project is also an exercise in letting go of worries and doubts…” Victor connected the dots and Yuuri lit up when his fiance made the connection.

“Exactly, Vitya. So I picked out this beautiful yarn and some knitting needles and I’m making a new hat!” Yuuri gestured to the needles in his hand and the ball of thick, red yarn in a ball in his lap. It was a deep, warm red in the light, like a bottle of their favorite wine, but where the shadows covered it, you could swear it was almost black. Victor had to admit it was an attractive color and looked very cozy, but he was still a little confused.

“Darling, you have a hat. A beautiful brand-new blue hat that Phichit got you for your birthday.”

Yuuri shrugged, not worrying or caring about the hats he already had. “Well, maybe I’ll send this one to him. Or give it to Yurio. Or Yakov. Or you! Or make a bunch to donate to charity. Sometimes, it’s the process that matters, not the object, right?”

Victor sat quietly for a moment, absorbing everything he just heard from his fiance. When he finally did speak, Yuuri’s face had gone back to the pinched expression he got when he was focused as he slowly worked the yarn over his knitting needles. “So you’re going to stay up late putting loops through loops on needles and then one day it will be a hat that you or may not keep? And it’s also going to help with the nervousness?”

“Yup.” Yuuri responded without looking up from his needles.

“...And this is a hobby that is not going to cut into training for competition or studying your Russian?”

“Nope.” HIs hands moved slowly but with great care, turning his work to start the next row of stitches.

Victor watched thoughtfully. “And the late-night gaming will cease?”

“Probably. The woman, her name is Stefana, said it might even help me with the sleep thing. She sent me an article about how it’s the blue light from the games that stimulates the brain to stay awake. Plus the repetitive motion can help focus my mind instead of thinking through all the ‘what-ifs’ before and during a skate.”

“Uh-huh…” Whether or not this was true made no difference to Victor. Yuuri was excited about something new that may calm his nervousness and help him sleep. If all it takes is sticks and string, Victor would buy a whole store of it for Yuuri. Hell, he would buy a sheep for wool and gather the wood for needles himself.

Yuuri stopped his knitting for a moment to look at the Russian next to him. He smiled seeing Victor’s own open expression across from him. “It’s just something I’m trying. I can take small projects with me to competition and pull them out if I need something to do. Stefana said I could even stop in on my off days from practice so I can get help and pick out new projects when I get better at this.”

“You’re really excited about this, aren’t you?” Victor picked his head up from the hand he was leaning into and peered into Yuuri’s eyes. He looked content, with a bit of pride in his eyes at what he accomplished. Though he was engaged in their conversation, Victor could see Yuuri already starting to look tired, even though it was barely starting to go dark outside. Maybe this new hobby was already working?

Yuuri’s smile grew as he started the next row of his project. “I didn’t expect to be, but yeah. It’s almost like magic. You sit down with some sticks and string and do your best to follow a pattern and look!”

For the first time, Victor got a good look at Yuuri’s work. The beautiful, thick yarn was attached to a lumpy, uneven square on Yuuri’s needles. Trying not to look unimpressed, Victor looked back and forth from it to Yuuri’s face.

“It’s a lumpy red square.”

Yuuri lowered his hands and went back to work, wrapping the yarn around the needles once more. “Maybe now it is, but it will one day achieve its dream of becoming a hat worthy of Victor Nikiforov’s head.”

The Russian couldn’t help himself. He laughed and leaned forward to press his lips to Yuuri’s. Yuuri accepted the kiss without taking his eyes from his work. Victor leaned back when he realized he wasn’t going to get anything more than that and, instead, smiled adoringly at the man in front of him.

“Of course it will be worthy. If you make it, then there’s no question. And if it makes you happy, my love, I won’t stop you. You know that.”

Victor got up to make himself some tea and get back to his own work that he left in their bedroom. He let the blanket in his lap fall to the sofa and stretched with his arms over his head. Just a few minutes talking together and Victor felt the need he so often felt to stay as close to Yuuri as possible, but as much as he wanted to stay and watch Yuuri work, he wasn’t going to be very good company and he didn’t want to be a distraction. Plus, Yuuri was entirely focused on the lumpy square in his lap. They could both wait until the dinner hour to come back together again.

Victor held his hand out to Yuuri, as he turned away, inviting him to clasp hands as they so often did before separating for anything. Yuuri looked up and, seeing Victor’s outstretched hand, placed a kiss on the back of it as he held it gently in his.

“Vitya, can you sit with me for a while while I work on this? I could use some company.”

Victor smiled and pulled Yuuri’s hand to his own lips for a kiss in return. “Of course, my love. Let me just grab my laptop and I’ll join you.”

The two of them stopped working to eat together, leftovers from the night before. After the dishes were done, they went to sit on the sofa together. Yuuri sat in his spot from before, pulling Victor’s legs into his lap before picking up his knitting from the table where he had left it. Victor put on a silly movie they both loved and near the end, Yuuri’s hands started to slow, and his head started to droop.Victor noticed but waited for Yuuri to say something.

“Vitya?”

“Yes, my love?”

“I think I’m gonna go to bed now.” Yuuri put the knitting in a bag on the tables and gently put Victor’s feet back on the ground. He crawled into Victor’s lap, wrapping his arms around the Russian’s waist.

Victor smiled and pulled Yuuri closer, putting a few quick kisses into his hair for good measure.

“I’ll follow you in a bit, then.”

“Okay,” Yuuri sighed, but he made no move to actually get up off the sofa.

“Love?”

“Hmm?” His arms tightened around Victor.

“The bed is in the other room.”

“Yeah…”

Victor stifled a laugh and instead, put his arms around the man in his lap, wondering for the millionth time how he got lucky.

“It’s alright, love. We can stay like this a little longer.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've have anxiety and I've been knitting to cope with it since I was a kid! I figure if Yuuri were to pick it up, it would start the same way I did, hats and scarves. 
> 
> The women at my local yarn store are so helpful and open about what they're working on, I just had to write a woman like that into the story. 
> 
> Yuuri obviously picked the red because it reminds him of Victor. Victor is a little confused about it, but he's got the spirit!


End file.
